Teacher accused of beating students

Mohammed Ibrahim, Staff Reporter

A foreign English teacher at a public school in the northern region used to beat and mistreat students, although the school’s administration warned him more than once but in vain.

A number of parents filed complaints against the teacher, rejecting beating their children under the pretext of making them more polite.

The School Violations Committee, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, recently interrogated the teacher in the case of assaulting a seventh grade student and filed a report which did not appeal to parents, students and teachers.

Parents told Al Khaleej the report mentioned the committee requested the teacher not to beat up the students and resort to the administration of the school in case he has any complaint against one of them, emphasising the necessity of applying educational methods and learning strategies inside the classroom.  

Teachers and others at the school reported the ministry, in similar cases of beating up, punished violators in a very strict ways including dismissing, cutting 10 per cent of the salary, or transferring to another school, while in this case, the committee found that it was enough only to warn the teacher. Al Khaleej learnt that the educational committee attended a class with the teacher to evaluate his performance closely and the principal recorded her observations formally, including chewing gum during the teaching process.

An earlier report said the Ministry of Education emphasised the importance of adding the Chinese language to the curriculum of the targeted schools, which are teaching Chinese in the current academic year and to add Chinese as a third language to the schools that teach French. The mechanisms of adding the Chinese language will be announced later on.

Underlining the necessity to add Chinese language in classrooms, the ministry made a circular to schools to sort students accordingly in a classroom to be called ‘Third Language’, adding that these tasks should be completed by the end of office hours on Wednesday, September 18 at the latest.